1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing a music file search function. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing a music file search function, in which a characteristic segment of each stored music file is generated by using a three-dimensional (3D) sound effect.
2. Description of Related Art
Innovations in digital audio signal processing technologies have led to the development of MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio) portable audio players, in which audio files stored in a flash memory in MP3 format can be played for a prolonged period of time up to hours.
MP3 players are advantageous in that they are compact, which eliminates the need for much larger and bulkier storage mediums such as cassette tapes and compact disks (CDs). Further, music files can be stored in a relatively small flash memory and played repeatedly without having degradation in sound quality.
As a means for storing MP3 music files, a flash memory instead of CDs or mini disks (MDs) are used to make the resulting MP3 players compact and stable. To increase the data storage capacity, there are MP3 players that support a compact flash card (CF card), a secure digital card (SD card), a smart media card (SM card), a multimedia card (MMC), and a memory stick, in addition to MP3 players implemented with a hard disk having a considerably large data storage capacity.
Currently, flash memories having data storage capacities of 128 MB to 1 GB and hard disks having data storage capacities of 5 GB to 100 GB are used in MP3 players. Generally, a 4-minute MP3 file has approximately 4 MB of data at the sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and at the bit rate of 128 kbps. Therefore, approximately 30 to 25,000 MP3 files can be stored in a single MP3 player. That is, as the storage capacity increases, the number of MP3 files that can be stored in an MP3 player increases. However, this makes it difficult for a user to select the music files stored in MP3 players.
New MP3 players currently available have a liquid crystal display (LCD) as a display unit on which information on the current track being played and a list of music files are typically displayed, which allows users to easily select songs from the stored music files. By using a button provided on the MP3 players, users can browse or navigate through the list of music files displayed to select and play songs corresponding to the music files.
Further, MP3 players not having an LCD panel are also available. However, these devices play music files in the order they were stored or in a random order, and since there can be hundreds or thousands of songs stored in an MP3 player, the process of selecting a particular song from a massive amount of music files stored in the MP3 player can be a difficult or even formidable process for users.
In conventional music players (such as cassette players, CD players, and MD players) that play about 20 songs, it is not difficult for users to keep track of songs. However, increase in the storage capacity of MP3 players not having provided with a display unit makes it difficult to browse and select songs.
Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0056248 discloses an MP3 player for an automobile audio/visual (A/V) system and a method of selecting music files in the MP3 player, in which a user can store, delete, display the titles and artists of songs, and play music files compressed in MP3 format. The MP3 player has a sort button which allows the user to browse the titles and artists of songs in an arranged order.
However, the above-described MP3 player has no other way of searching the music file than navigating through the stored music files arranged by the titles and artists of songs, and it is essential that the MP3 player be equipped with a display unit to display the list of music files.